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Will Reagan's Childhood Home Be Demolished for Obama Library?

Will Reagan's Childhood Home Be Demolished for Obama Library?

The University of Chicago Medical Center plans to demolish former President Ronald Reagan's childhood home to make way for a parking lot that could be for visitors of a future Obama Presidential Library.

Published February 1, 2013

President Ronald Reagan spent his childhood years living at 832 E. 57th Street, an apartment building in Chicago’s Hyde Park community. And now the home where he spent his formative years is being demolished to make way for a parking lot that could be used for visitors of a future presidential library for President Obama.

The University of Chicago Medical Center is behind the demolition of the building and the school has also been lobbying to be the site of the library. There is no official word that the lot will be for a presidential library honoring the 44th president, but clear signs show reasons why this may be the University of Chicago's intentions.

First Lady Michelle Obama and the president’s close advisor Valerie Jarrett are former top executives of the University of Chicago Medical Center. President Obama was a lecturer at the law school for 12 years. And let’s not forget, Obama’s Hyde Park home is here too.

This is still Chicago. Barack Obama’s Chicago. Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago.

It is safe to say that Democrats don’t want any reminders of a Republican president named Reagan and his glory days a stone’s throw from a future Obama Presidential Library.

Better to raze the building now, than later. But do they have the right to erase Ronald Reagan from Chicago history?